Although the Headingley Test match was wrapped up within three days, Jos Buttler was the talk of the town following his impressive 80 in the Test. The innings, although not a century, is one that has been held in high regard by many due to its gritty nature. England would go on to win the Test and eventually level the series. Speaking about his innings, Buttler went ahead and stated that the Indian Premier League had given him the confidence to perform well in the Test scenario.

“Those couple of weeks in the IPL gave me huge amounts of confidence,” Buttler said. “To be in those pressure situations in India, playing in front of crowds, the pressure of being an overseas player. That showed me a lot about where I was at and where I can get to, so that gave me a lot of confidence. For me, not trying to worry about the colour of the ball definitely helps. Having put in good performances elsewhere and not putting as much pressure on myself.

Advertisement

He also made the massive difference between T20 cricket and Test cricket and explained how the mindset begins to change. “In T20 there’s generally another game soon after, so you know you’ve got another opportunity coming up. You probably just move on if you fail. But in Test cricket, if you get out early, you have a long time to think about it.

“I started to think too much about how to not get out, as opposed to how to score runs. I got in a really bad rut that I just couldn’t get out of. The only real way to get out of it was to be dropped. And actually, being dropped released a lot of pressure. It wasn’t very long after that that I made an ODI hundred in Dubai, which was a turnaround for me after a long and hard six months.”

Mindset is everything for Buttler

Recently, Buttler had been singled out for the motivational quote of ‘F**k It’ written on his bat-handle. Shedding some light on the same, he went ahead and stated that it was indeed something to do with his mindset.

“It’s just something that reminds me of what my best mindset is,” Butter says, “when I’m playing cricket and probably in life as well. It puts cricket in perspective. When you nick off, does it really matter? It’s just a good reminder when I’m in the middle or when I’m questioning myself and it brings me back to a good place.

“Now my mentality is quite similar to my first few Tests. I’m not worrying about external factors. I’m just trying to play the game and trusting myself.”